Always Being Born – A Memoir
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An outspoken memoir by a much-celebrated Indian filmmaker.
“I am a filmmaker by accident and an author by compulsion,” claims Mrinal Sen, who became part of the great triumvirate of Bengali cinema—along with Satyajit Ray and Ritwik Ghatak—in the 1950s and ’60s when he founded the rebellious Indian New Wave. Throughout his career, he kept that fire of protest burning, his acute political awareness and left-wing orientation spurring his creativity. Over decades, the themes that pervaded his cinema mirrored the spectrum of human suffering and experience, and in turn crystallized the anger of a restive mind against social injustice, economic deprivation, and communal divide. In this memoir, a celebrated ambassador of Indian cinema on the global stage, for whom cinema became a lexicon that gave voice to the times, reflects on encounters with the legends of the world of images as well as his inspirations and obsessions—not least among them, the city of Calcutta. Always Being Born is a fascinating memoir of a great artist and a buoyant social commentator who continued to confront, fight, and survive on the very challenges that propelled him to look beyond and dream.
“I am a filmmaker by accident and an author by compulsion,” claims Mrinal Sen, who became part of the great triumvirate of Bengali cinema—along with Satyajit Ray and Ritwik Ghatak—in the 1950s and ’60s when he founded the rebellious Indian New Wave. Throughout his career, he kept that fire of protest burning, his acute political awareness and left-wing orientation spurring his creativity. Over decades, the themes that pervaded his cinema mirrored the spectrum of human suffering and experience, and in turn crystallized the anger of a restive mind against social injustice, economic deprivation, and communal divide. In this memoir, a celebrated ambassador of Indian cinema on the global stage, for whom cinema became a lexicon that gave voice to the times, reflects on encounters with the legends of the world of images as well as his inspirations and obsessions—not least among them, the city of Calcutta. Always Being Born is a fascinating memoir of a great artist and a buoyant social commentator who continued to confront, fight, and survive on the very challenges that propelled him to look beyond and dream.
Mrinal Sen (1923–2018) directed more than thirty feature films, documentaries, and telefilms. He was instrumental in launching the New Cinema movement in India with his critically acclaimed Bhuvan Shome.